Animal Remains from Late Medieval Capabiaccio: A Preliminary Assessment of the Stock Economy

Abstract

The results of the analysis of the-animal remains recovered from Building J and Building M at the Capalbiaccio, Italy, site are presented. Capalbiaccio was a fortified hilltop town located in southern Tuscany which was occupied from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries. Residents of the town raised domestic stock and occasionally supplemented their diet with wild game. The faunal assemblages from both buildings are dominated by sheep/goat, pigs, and cattle, but the relative proportions of these groups differ at the two buildings. In Building J, which appears to be a residence, pigs dominate, but decrease through time as sheep/goat becomes more common. This suggests a small shift in stock raising or consumption practices during the later part of occupation of the town. In the area known as Building M, the dense deposit of faunal refuse is dominated by sheep/goat, rather than pigs, and the area appears to have been used as a garbage dump by residents of the town until it was abandoned. Mortality profiles for domestic stock suggest sheep/goat and cattle were primarily raised for their secondary products, such as milk, wool, or labor, rather than for meat.